


Taking the New Road

by Merfilly



Series: Walk a Different Road [13]
Category: Transformers (Bay Movies)
Genre: Character Death Fix, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-18
Updated: 2011-10-18
Packaged: 2017-10-24 18:07:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/266360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jazz comes online, Mikaela is brood-mother, and Starscream finally chooses something different.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Taking the New Road

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Canonical hatchlings.  
> 2\. Set after RotF, but precludes other sequels.  
> 3\. Mech/human pairings in background, but non-explicit this part.

He was aware. He could feel his frame. Sensors all seemed to be functioning. Diagnostics…boot-level? That was interesting. His system was only supposed to do boot-level after a deep injury or long stasis period.

Accessing his memories, he found that he remembered a report coming in from his scout, and Prime's decision to take action on that report. Per usual protocols, he had updated his memory files in secondary, locked files. His primary memory files were in agreement with the back-ups, but then became scattered and broken. There had been…new life forms? A battle, or maybe two?

The All Spark!

With a hard override on the diagnostics, Jazz forced his processor and frame to sync and complete the reboot, overwhelmed by his sense of duty, now that the All Spark had been found. He surged up to a sitting position just as his optics and audials came online, taking in all that was around him.

Mikaela was trying to make the brood behave. However, she was one human, and there were thirteen of the awkward little creatures. Ratchet had not wanted to leave her there alone with them, but he was needed by Ironhide and Bumblebee on the mainland. She was on the verge of telling Sparky, their leader, to make them settle down, when the entire brood squawked and then flocked to her, pincers and talons clinging to the lightweight armor she had to wear in defense of their cutting digits. It didn't matter that her body was not big enough to accommodate the brood; they piled on each other, effectively cloaking her from sight and the ability to see.

Fortunately, she could hear, and the click-whirr of a mech in motion was familiar, even as the whine of weapons coming online and the pulse of fields close enough to register on her skin made her aware that the patient was alert, despite Ratchet being certain the nanites would take at least three more days. "Sparky, make them let go!" She aimed her words at the one who always managed to tangle himself along her shoulders and in her hair, the biggest of the brood, and very possessive of her. Sparky had even bit Optimus Prime for daring to touch Mikaela while she had been grooming Sparky.

The brood leader clicked at the rest, getting fierce when the brood creeled back in fear, until they finally unmobbed from their caretaker. That let Mikaela see that Jazz was staring in shock at the brood, at her, and at the Cybertronian/human hybrid medical bay he was in. "Umm, hi? Ratchet said you might not remember me. I'm Mikaela Banes."

Jazz could not believe that there were small protoform Cybertronians in the bay. He did not recognize his location. A sensor ping outward said other Autobots were in the area of operations, including, oddly enough, the small native life-form speaking to him. Mikaela Banes was a memory. She helped in the mission. Comrade to Samuel Witwicky, an integral part of the mission. Jazz's scan passively cycled over her again. She registered as an Autobot. It was the comm-piece in her ear, wired for Autobot bands, and her own resonance. She radiated…

"Prime." It was the first word he had managed, an insult for a mech as verbal as he could be, but his sole concern now was for the mech he followed.

"He's okay," Mikaela said. "He went with Ratchet to meet up with 'Bee and Ironhide in Florida. They wanted to be certain Megatron had really left the state after we bumped into him last week," Mikaela told him. "Sorry, Ratchet said you'd probably be a few more days repairing, or he'd be here to brief you. If you're okay with a verbal brief, instead of his zip-file version, I can fill you in. Maybe with you being awake, the brats will stay quieter." She looked in amusement at the brood, some of whom got brave enough to cheep reprovingly for her use of the derogatory name. She really wished there was a way to understand their clicks and whirrs better, for herself, but Ratchet said every brood had its own binary-based language until they developed enough to use more symbolic logic interfaces like true verbal language.

"I'm not turnin' down any intel on the matter, and I'm awful curious about the little ones," Jazz said, relaxing his fields and weapons as Autobot presences settled with identity pings. Sideswipe, Hound, Mirage… It seemed there was a homecoming he'd missed. None of the three noted the quiet scans; Jazz had always had a light touch, and he wanted to know a lot more before dealing with his counterpart, Mirage. They had not actually been on the same planet since the diaspora after the All Spark's release into space.

"Help me get them cleaned up and fed, and I'll tell you every thing I can, since we found the Cube," Mikaela promised him. "It's amazing how dusty they get inside their rotor joints. Ratchet says that once they reframe in a few weeks or months, it won't be so bad."

"I can't believe I'm seeing hatchlings, but glad Ratchet's on top of it. Who…"

Mikaela sighed very softly. "Apparently, by all of Ratchet's tests, a Seeker and the Fallen, because the coding is more primitive in areas than any of the modern Cybertronians, and the fresher coding overlay has all the marks of a true flier. We're guessing Starscream, given who was managing things for the 'Cons while Megatron was supposed to be dead."

Jazz's optics fritzed for a second. "Okay, I think that's the point where I start catching and feeding, while you clean, and talk. Because you just said a riddle."

Mikaela smiled up at him, and nodded, turning to Sparky and carefully mimicking the chirp he used for 'energon'. The big hatchling began bullying the brood into a line, while Mikaela got all the supplies ready.

With thirteen hungry mouths to nurture, she had plenty of time to tell everything from the meeting with Jazz up to present day.

`~`~`~`~`

The heavy landing and casual swat at his helm had Starscream on edge already, even as Megatron berated him over his shoddy efforts to find energy resources. The seeker wanted nothing more in that moment than to blast away, use his speed and agility to just get away from the glitch-ridden rust-bucket. His loyalty circuits were already frayed, broken at the seams by the Fallen's manipulations of him. Only thin coding protocols kept him at the side of a leader who had failed, time and again, to deliver on his promises.

"Who is caring for the hatchlings?" Starscream demanded, daring to interrupt the warrior, even as he took a slight step back from the menacing mech.

Megatron gave a short bark of laughter at the question, rather than striking Starscream again. "I gave them to Prime, so they can drain his resources for a time. One they are of a size and intelligence to be useful, we'll take them back," Megatron told his second.

It was the wrong thing to say.

Starscream did not care, so much, for the creatures he had helped spawn. No, it was more a source of pride that his coding ran through all of them, that they owed their existence to him, and therefore would be magnificent one day. His vanity protested against the very idea of his creations being raised, unhindered, by mechs who would rather plod along in peace than strive for greatness in war and exploration.

Megatron never had a chance to raise his fields to a higher level of protection, and the double-barreled blasts to Megatron's already injured side gave Starscream all the chance in the world to escape. He didn't care if he had killed the warrior mech; he wanted his freedom, and wanted to be certain his legacy was not going to be coddled into nothingness by the Autobots! His thrusters roared with life as he left the howling, pain-ridden, damaged hulk behind him, shooting straight for the base where his long time enemies were.

`~`~`~`~`

**Author's Note:**

>  _Author's Note: One thing the various novels showed me was a Starscream who is scarily competent. The movies fail to live up to this, and I have been bothered by the violence Megatron subjects him to. Unlike in G1, there is no underlying connection I can truly see in the source material. For this series, unlike in "To Build a Future", I have chosen NOT to make that underlying connection happen. And this is my take on the novelized Starscream, rather than the mockery of Bay's filmed versions. YMMV_


End file.
